Work Text:
1.
It starts on a random afternoon, their station uncharacteristically calm for a Wednesday afternoon.
“Are you from Paris?” Mani approaches Yale, a bright smile on her face.
“My father–”
She cuts her off, blurting out the rest of her question as if the confidence she previously had was all but gone. “Cause Eiffel for you!”
Yale stares at the shorter girl, eyebrow raised in confusion as she squirmed under her stare. “Effiel?”
“Yeah! Like…like the tower? In Paris? Eiffel for you?” The smile fades from her smile as she questions her, any confidence she had before was replaced by embarrassment.
A few feet away from her, Zhang tries to stifle a laugh, keeping his eyes on his laptop to not make eye contact with Mani. Mikey is next to him, looking every more embarrassed than she did, eyes glued to this bangle as he swipes something on it. I mean there’s no way she hasn’t realized it yet, right?
“You know I was born in Japan right? I’ve never actually been to Paris,” Yale replies, showcasing that nothing is truly impossible, looking even more confused than before.
“Wait, really?” She takes a step backwards, a determined glint appearing in her eyes as she speaks, “I actually thought you were born here.”
“My family moved here soon after I was born. My only memories of Japan are from the times we visited when I was–,” she cuts herself as she realizes that Mani’s no longer in front of her, the blue haired girl on the floor.
“Are you okay?” She asks, putting her hand out for her to grab.
“Yeah, I just…I keep falling for you.” Someone, Zhang, barks a laugh while Mikey groans into his shoulder, though he was actually watching them now. Mani winces at how corny it sounded coming from her, though Yale didn’t seem to be fazed by it.
“Well, this is the first time I’ve seen you fall today. Maybe you should change your shoes,” she offers, jerking her thumb towards them. “You didn’t hit your head too hard, did you?” She places her hands on top of Mani’s head to feel for a bump, unaware of how flustered her companion was getting. Her hands reach her face, black eyes staring into Mani’s grey before she lets go, crossing her arms.
“You don’t feel weird or anything, right?”
She lets out a squeak, brain still catching up from having her hands on her face, as she weakly nods. “Mhm,” is the closest she can get to real words as she nods, ears so red it would be practically impossible to not notice them.
Unfortunately for Mani, a lot of detectives there are really good at doing the impossible.
Mani 0 / Yale 0 / Obviousness 1
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2.
The next time she tries, they’re trudging through paperwork. Mani glances behind her at the door, making sure no one is about to walk in before she tries again.
“Hey, Yale.” She hums, letting her know she’s listening before she continues.
“Are you a magician? Cause when I see you, everything disappears,” she jokes, speaking fast enough so that she wouldn’t get cut off. In the corner of her eye, she sees Harvard walk in, making a bee-line for one of the file cabinets.
“...No? Is your vision alright?” Concern laces her voice as Mani’s chest pangs, her mind already cooking up ways to recover from this.
“I’m fine!” She clears her throat, staring at Yale with an earnest look in her eyes. “Well, if you aren’t a magician, are you a photographer? Cause I can picture us together.” She even adds a little wink, hoping it gets the point across to the oblivious woman in front of her.
“I’m a techni–” It didn’t even get close.
“No, no no, don’t tell me! Let me guess,” she stumbles over herself, trying to save it before she makes an even bigger fool of herself. She can hear Harvard snicker to himself as he skims through a different cabinet, pulling a file out. It took everything in her to not throw a pen at him the longer he stayed here, but she couldn’t because Yale had absolutely no clue what was going on and she was not going to ruin this.
What’s a good line I can use that fits….
“. . . Are you a firefighter? Cause…you set my heart ablaze?” It felt too forward and she sounded way too uncertain while saying it for it to really work, Mani racking her brain to try and correct herself. “I mean, are you an arsonist?”
“An arsonist? Really?” She’s barely able to say it without giggling, the sound of her laughter putting butterflies in her chest and almost perfectly blocking out the sound of her co-worker laughing as he leaves the room.
“I mean, no one’s ever told you you’re on fire while you’re working?” C+ save Mani. She finds herself laughing at her own question, the both of them too distracted to continue their paperwork.
Yale calmed down first, wiping her eyes before simply saying, “Manimani.”
“Yeah?” She takes a breath in, clearing her throat. “What’s up?”
“You know you don’t have to keep calling me “Yale” right? You can use my first name if you want to.”
“Really?” She coughed into her hand for a moment, hiding the sudden surge of excitement she felt from that. “I mean–wait, what is your first name?”
“Kaname. Kaname Yale.”
“Well, Kaname, you can just call me Mani then. I’m pretty sure you’re the only one who doesn’t already.”
“Then maybe I should keep doing it,” her lips form a small smirk as she speaks, resting her hand on her arm as she picks up her pen. “If you’re the only one calling me Kaname, it’s only fair that I’m the only one calling you Manimani, right? Makes us special.”
“S-special how? Besides, isn’t it more of a hassle to use my full first name?” She stutters, her hand almost knocking her one pen off the table as she tries to process what she was saying.
“It’s not a hassle, not when it’s for you,” she calmly answers, as if she didn’t just make Mani’s heart explode, before tapping on the top of her paper, “Now c'mon, let’s finish these up so we can get lunch.”
Her eyes move back towards her paper, completely oblivious to how flustered her friend is.
Mani 1 / Yale 0 / Obliviousness 2
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3.
It was probably really inappropriate for her to try flirting again while on a case, yet her mouth often moved before her brain could get her to stop.
One moment, she, Carl, and Mikey were chasing after a criminal, leading them to a boat-filled pier. The next, there’s a knife to her throat and a crazed killer behind her, barking demands to her teammates.
A curious and morbid part of herself always kinda wondered what it would be like to be held hostage. It’s happened to almost all of them, Mikey and Yale Kaname being the only two to not be, but the thought of it always interested her. Having your life be put into the hands of someone who probably wants you dead and your teammates who have to try and disarm them would probably be absolutely nerve wracking for a normal person.
Fortunately for her, many people (including Kaname, which she still doesn’t know why) have described her as special– not to say she’s completely fearless right now. She likes to think she’s a reasonable amount of afraid right now, enough that she knows not to try and provoke the guy behind her but not enough to get her to panic and act irrationally.
She feels herself get dragged backwards as he monologues, practically giving Mani zero time to try and convince him to drop the knife at her neck. Carl’s talking, his voice soft but strict as he tries to get him off the ledge–
Wait…ledge?
Her eye peer over his arm and onto the wooden pier, both of their feet close to falling off of it and into the dark blue water below them. Panic soars through her body for a split second, though she keeps herself steady and calm, at least on the outside, as she looks at her three teammates in front of her and realizes just how big a gap there is between them.
“SHUT UP!” He yells from behind her, whatever Carl said–she feels slightly bad for tuning him out this whole time–apparently falling flat on deaf ears. She opens her mouth to take a shot at getting through to him as he yanks her back again, a quick, searing pain cutting her off. Her hand shoots up for her neck, her body plunging into the cold water below her before she could fully react to what happened.
Mikey’s a better medic than she is; he’d probably know how bad the cut is.
Unfortunately, she has bigger things to worry about, holding her breath and kicking her legs out aimlessly in hopes she hits their culprit hard enough to be let go. From the corner of her eye, she sees the knife start to sink down into the water, taking the chance to try and swim back up to the surface. Her right hand grips onto the dock before her left one does as she puts all of her strength into pulling herself up.
The moment her head is above water, she notices the rest of her team arriving–though Mikey was nowhere to be seen–Carl and Kaname both an inch from the ledge, reaching over to assist her getting up. She can feel the water droplets going down her neck and face, practically mixing with the small stream of blood. She waits until she’s completely back on land to start coughing up the little bit of water she swallowed, each cough making her neck sting even more.
“A-are you the ocean?” Both of their heads snap to her, focus zeroing in to whatever she was about to say.
“Cause I’m always drowning in your eyes,” she replied, a weak smirk on her face as she coughed up more water. Kaname immediately rushes to help her, hitting her back before moving away. Carl cringes, though he buries the feeling down to focus on the situation at hand.
“One of you, grab the med kit! She’s bleeding,” she commands, Zhang nodding before heading to their car for it. Mikey resurfacing a moment after, their culprit in his arms. He lays him down before he performs CPR, Harvard dialing 911 for an ambulance and for an update on the other officers arriving.
Zhang returns with their med kit, Kaname cradling her with Mani’s head in her lap as she gestures for him to hand her it. “What’s your blood type? I doubt you’ll need a transfusion, but still,” she asks, grabbing a piece of cloth and attempting to clean up the wound. A few feet away from her, she can hear their culprit coughing as he jolts awake, Mikey stepping away from him.
“My type?”
“Yes Manimani, your blood type.”
“Oh, well…my type is you!” She chirps, her lungs feeling less flooded than before, though her body feels a lot more tired.
It’s probably the adrenaline, she thinks to herself, before succumbing to the urge and passing out.
Incomplete Play: Mani 1 / Yale 0 / Obliviousness 2
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4.
Now, Kaname Yale was not an idiot. She could easily tell someone’s intentions and pick out small details that others often missed out on. The law was practically ingrained into her memory and there wasn’t an electronic in the world that she couldn’t figure out or fix. Her people skills were better than you would expect, and she’d honestly consider herself to be a master at forming basic connections and understanding what people really meant in a conversation.
That is, until she met Manimani Manoa.
In the little time she’s spent with the younger girl, she found herself gravitating towards her more than her teammates. Nothing against them of course, there was just something different about her that made her want to spend time with her, both on and off the clock.
The two of them had a lot in common, yet they complemented each other perfectly in a way that Kaname had never felt with anyone else. It was obvious to her just how different she acted towards Manimani versus how she treats her other friends/co-workers, and, although it took her a while to realize this, it’s clear that Manimani does the same thing.
Which, after doing some questioning and googling, leads her to the conclusion that she’s in love in Manimani. It doesn’t hit her in some dramatic way; there’s no panicking or embarrassment or anything that would be in some cheesy romance movie. It just comes as a fact: Kaname Yale is in love in Manimani Manoa. Simple as that.
The question though is, Does Manimani Manoa feel the same way?
Love and romance aren’t things that are completely out of her field–like she said, she’s pretty good at emotional and social things– but when they’re for her? It completely throws her off, her brain taking and possibly blowing things out of proportion.
A longing gaze? Could just be platonic.
Their hands touching for a second and Kaname being the one to have to pull away? Mani’s definitely in love with her.
Shitty pick-up lines? It could be both!
Now, could she simply ask if she was being flirty or not? Yes, but that complicates things if she says no. If she thought she was serious, does that mean that she wanted it to be real? Yes, and that’s something she isn’t quite ready to admit until she knows that what she’s feeling isn’t unreciprocated.
When Manimani hits her with two (TWO) different pick-up lines during a case, right after she almost drowned, she gets hit with an idea.
Two can play that game, she thinks to herself as she sits beside a sleeping Manimani in the car, an idea already forming in her head.
She waits until Manimani is in better health and comes back to work, and then waits another day just to formulate an actual plan instead of just vaguely professing her feelings. Two days after that, she decides that now would be the perfect time to try, the pair of ladies walking out into the cold, dark night once their shift ends.
“Mannn, thank god I’m not doing a 24 hour shift tonight,” she exclaims, stretching out right before adjusting the bag on her shoulder. “Walk me home?”
“Of course.” This was another new addition to their relationship: Kaname walking the younger girl home after work, since she lives surprisingly close to the station, and then she takes the bus back to her apartment. Usually, Manimani chatters away while she listens, the blue-haired girl letting her in on the latest gossip or whatever case they’re working on or just whatever’s going on in her life. Kaname would just nod and respond, though she’d make sure that she knew that she had her undivided attention the whole time.
This time though, it was quiet between them, the sounds of Broadstone being the only thing keeping it from being dead silent. She can hear and see Manimani’s soft breathing from next to her, the younger girl tugging on her coat to cover up her neck a little bit more.
Kaname hums to herself, catching Manimani’s attention before she speaks, “The moon is beautiful tonight, isn’t it?” I love you.
“Huh…yeah I guess it is. Actually, I think we’re supposed to get a full moon sometime this week? I hope not, god I remember the last time there was one. It was like a curse was unleashed on the whole station, we almost had to do a 48 hour shift with all the shit that was going on.” She launches into a mini-rant about it, Kaname trying her best to not visibly deflate as she nodded along, adding in small tidbits as they get closer to their destination.
Mani 1 / Yale 0 / Obliviousness 3
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And then she gets sick, barely a week after that. As if to add insult to injury, it was Manimani who had convinced her to stay home. It was also Manimani who volunteered to bring her food once she heard that she was practically bedridden.
She sent her address while hazy, not thinking about just how much of a mess she and her apartment have turned into, before going right back to sleep. What felt like minutes later, her phone buzzes and rings next to her, a random K-pop song blasting from it. She feels around on her nightstand for it, picking it up and hitting the green button.
“ ‘ello? Manimani?” She slurs, wincing at how bright her screen is.
“Yeah! I’m like…five minutes away? Could you unlock your door so I can just come in?” She asks, sounding slightly hesitant as she speaks.
“Mhm, sure,” she nods as if she could see her, hanging up as she musters up the energy to get up. Her vision blurs once her feet touch the floor, nausea swimming in her stomach as she pushes herself up and out of her room. The journey from there to her front door feels like forever to her, every step feeling as if a month passed in between them, and when she finally unlocks it, she finds herself face to face with the girl she loves.
“Kaname! Get back to bed, alright? I can lock the door and everything, you just lay down,” she commands, putting her arm around the sick girl as she tries to lead her back to her room. A small whine escapes her lips as she leans all her weight onto Manimani, her legs feeling like jello.
“Okay, fine. The couch it is.” It’s a much quicker walk there than to her room, Manimani getting her tucked in before going back to lock the door. If her head wasn’t feeling like cotton right now and her body wasn’t so heavy, she probably would’ve made her lock that door the moment she stepped through it for both of their safety. Right now, she’s just glad that Manimani’s here with her, even if she isn’t at her best right now.
“Did you take your temperature? What about any medicines?” She digs through a plastic bag–Did she always have that with her?–taking out Tylenol and Benadryl, though she could tell there was more in there than she could see.
She shakes her head, humming as turns to face Manimani, who sighs, grabbing a thermometer from her bag. Her mouth opens as she sticks the thermometer under her tongue, a loud beep coming from it as she pulls it out.
“102 degrees, hmm. That’s not too bad, how are you feeling?”
“ ‘m fine, jus’ a headache.” And nausea, and dizziness, and chills, and–
“Right, right,” she lowers her voice, eyes scanning the room for any other light sources that could be bothering her. If it didn’t hurt to laugh, she’d probably let out a small giggle at how she glares at the lamp in her kitchen, getting up to go turn it off. Instead, a small, loopy grin forms on her face as she drifts off into slumber.
She wakes up a little later, though she doesn’t know the exact time, her headache slowly reforming as she tries to recall what happened before. A warm, steaming bowl sat in front of her on the table, Kaname peeking her head over it to see soup. It looks too good to be the stuff from the can, which means…
“Mani?” She mumbles, “Mani!”
“What’s wrong?” She came running from the kitchen, eyes wide and alert.
“Did you make this?” It feels like a stupid question, one that’s answer shouldn’t really matter to her, yet something warms in her heart when she nods.
“Yeah! My mom used to make it for me when I was sick, so I thought I’d try my hand at recreating it. Is it…good?” She rubs the back of her neck as she asks, her eyes no longer meeting hers, instead locked onto the bowl.
Kaname immediately digs in, blowing on her spoon before putting it into her mouth, ignoring how it slightly burns her tongue.
“It’s really good.” It was, she doesn’t even have to lie about it. She almost chokes on a noodle as she puts another spoonful in her mouth, putting the spoon down to hit her chest. The sudden force of her choking causes her headache to be back in full force, wincing and leaning back into the couch.
Manimani immediately realizes, moving the bowl away so she can get closer to her, “Is it the headache? I got some Tylenol here you can take.” She digs into the bag, pulling out the bottle along with some water, taking two pills from it and handing them to Kaname, who swallows them with ease. She takes it slow with the water to avoid choking again and making it worse, setting it down and leaning back into her caretaker.
“Are you still hungry?” Manimani asks, sliding the water bottle next to the soup bowl, “I don’t want to force you to eat, but you probably should at least a little more. Or you can wait until the Tylenol kicks in!”
“Mm, nah, I can still eat.” With that, she sits back up straight, gently pulling the bowl closer to her. She tries to take it slower with the food so as to not choke again, but she still scarfs down most of the soup pretty quickly, the warmth of the broth surprisingly helping with her nausea.
“Wow, you really liked it huh? Maybe I’ll make more for you,” she chuckles, taking the practically empty bowl and spoon from her hands and putting it into the sink, the quiet rush of water from the sink being the only indicator that Manimani was still in there. Once she comes back, she plops down next to Kaname, a calm expression on her face.
“I’d eat your soup everyday if I could,” Kaname mutters, not one hundred percent aware of what she just said. In the back of her mind, she remembers that the saying is, “I want to eat your miso soup everyday”. Hell, she’s heard the saying multiple times in movies, tv, and books to the point where it should be ingrained in her memory enough for her to not fumble it like that.
“Really?” She seems genuinely shocked by her comment, ears flushing red as she played with one of her curls. “I doubt that’d be possible. Well, I mean…maybe if I brought you some at work everyday…” she trails off, contemplating the logistics of it all.
“You could if we got married,” she blurts out in a state of fevered confidence.
Mani 1 / Yale 1 / Obliviousness 3
+1
“Wha- Are you feeling okay?” Manimani moves closer to her, putting her hand on her forehead to try and check her temperature. “Your fever must be getting worse, maybe…maybe I should call the doctor. Yeah! You just sit tight and—”
“Manimani,” her tone is strict as she cuts her off, her face softening as she licks her lips, becoming weirdly aware of just how dry her throat was. “I’m okay.”
“But you-you just said you’d marry me!” Which, definitely is not what she said, though she can’t deny the fact that she’s been thinking about it.
“So?” At this point, the cat’s out of the bag, and she might as well ride the wave of confidence her illness is giving her.
“We aren’t even dating!” The “yet” was unspoken between them, neither of them wanting to be the one to ask. They sit in silence for a moment, Kaname opening her mouth to respond.
“I-”
“Let’s go out...on a date,” Manimani says slowly, as if she’s reading a line from a script, though the genuinity shone through her expression. “When you’re feeling better, obviously.”
“Yeah, let’s,” she responds, smiling for the second time today as she looks the blue haired girl in the eyes. “There’s this winter fair opening up next weekend, if you wanna go.”
“Only if you’ll go on the rides with me.” She chuckles, pulling out her phone and groaning under her breath. “Shoot, I should probably head into work.”
Head into… “Wait, what time is it?”
“Like 1pm-ish. I called in a half day,” she checks her phone again before repocketing it.
“Why would you do that?” Kaname asks, raising an eyebrow at the younger girl’s action. There was no reason for her to call in late, especially since she knew they were working on a bigger murder case—
“To make sure you were okay, duh. What, you thought I was just gonna leave you sick in bed?”
“You didn’t have to y’know. You could’ve just stopped by afterwards,” she mumbles, trying her best to not sound ungrateful.
“Obviously I didn’t have to, I wanted to. Besides, it’s not like it’s a hassle or anything, so you better not start feeling guilty about it!” She points at her as she speaks, a stern look on her face as she reminds her.
Oh.
“It’s not a hassle, not when it’s you.” She remembers saying that to her not too long ago; she didn’t think it’d be used against her so soon.
“I’m not, I’m not,” she waves off her concerns, softly laughing as she talks, “I’m glad you came, really. Just wish that I wasn’t such a mess the first time you came over.”
“Then I’ll come over again later, once you’re not sick. And we can just forget today and pretend that that’s the first time.”
“Alright then, I guess that’s the plan.” Both of them are a little giggly, though nothing in particular was really funny to either of them. The thought of coming over to each other’s apartments, of going out on dates and doing silly romantic things together, it all just makes them more excited for when they see each other again. Even if that day is a day or two from now, when Kaname feels good enough to head back to work.
Nothing would really change between each other outwardly; they’d probably keep their routine of working in their respective roles, eating together, and then walking home, but for now, that was okay.
It was their routine, their thing, and that’s all that mattered to them.
Final Score: Mani 2 / Yale 2 / Obliviousness(DISQUALIFIED)
YaleMani Wins!